France: Riots: Villepin pirouettes while Paris burns, Sarkozy deploys forces of law and order

Now, some 37 years after the French student riots of May 1968, another round of youth riots has gripped France, evoking the semblance of a civil war of kids against a remarkably well-disciplined police force. Indeed, the police give the impression of being afraid of their own shadow, since allegedly it was the electrocution of two youth fleeing the police and taking refugee in a power station only to fry there, that provided the pretext for the masterminds behind the present conflagragation.

The incidents began in the drab hi-rise "suburbs" (les banlieues) where the French crate in stacks their poorer immigrant families unto the third generation and the twentieth floor, where (said a guy on TV a moment ago) the youth never learn to speak French as a language in its own rite - not a meld element with the family's original Arabic. In contrast to 1968, these youth are not students, and yet neither are they employed. Generalities, to be sure, but typical tho not universal phenomena.
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UPDATE: refWrite France Riots #2 > Politics: France & North America: France's Autumn Riots - reverberations for USA, Canada, and Quebec, Nov19,2k5.
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As the incidents took to programmatic car-burning "Vehicles torched in French riots," Reuters (unsigned), Fri Nov 4, 2005 (7:39 AM ET), they transformed from seemingly isolated incidents to became full-fledged riots. Still, it seems the police did not attempt to crush the violent crowds. There were no shooting deaths of culprits, no mass arrests, and no leaders sussed out and pounced upon.

As the riots spread beyond the outer banlieues de Paris, other cities and towns and even non-"suburban" areas of the same youth-in-poverty demographic - which it happens is also African, North African, Arabic-language background with mostly an Islamic religous family background: these youth turned the mentioned additional zones too into blazing multi-locationed elements of a hidden system within the chaotic appearance of wild fire. "Fiery riots spread beyond Paris>," CNN,com (unsigned), Friday, November 4, 2005; Posted: 2:54 p.m. EST (19:54 GMT).

At some point, according to Reuters reporter, Tom Heneghan "French government meets as copycat riots spread," Nov5,2k5

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin

This being the same guy who thwarted European Union cooperation in the War against Terrorism, the overthrow of Saddam; the guy who kept the lid on French and UN complicity with Saddam in the Oil-for=Food scandal (the world's largest scame ever, in dollar value); and did nothing to establish democracy in Iraq; well, it was this same dandy Villepin who, assembling himself

and other top ministers met with community leaders Saturday in an effort to quell rioting by immigrants which has spread from Paris to other cities. ¶ Tension was high Saturday as the sun set and French police braced for another night of violence. ¶ Police and government officials are struggling to restore order, and debates are raging over how to stop the unrest, which began 10 days ago. ...

Over the past week, more than 2,000 vehicles have been torched, hundreds of people have been arrested, and some police officers have been injured. ¶ Friday night alone, police arrested more than 250 people across France, after rioters attacked paramedics and set a parking complex ablaze, torching some 900 vehicles, according to state radio.

Fox News Channel mentioned a little while ago that the insurrectionists even set a nursery ablaze, a poignant symbol reminiscent of the Iraqi terrorists.

The vandalism has spread to around 20 communities among largely immigrant and Muslim populations frustrated by poverty, high unemployment and what they see as discrimination in French society. In some areas, unemployment is 25 percent. ¶ Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the government is unanimous in its determination to end the violence and address the problems.

"Once this crisis is overcome and calm is restored, each must also understand that there's also a certain feeling of injustice in some neighborhoods," Sarkozy said, according to a translation from Reuters. "I have thought this for a long time, and said it as well."

There have been calls by the Green Party and the Communist Party for Sarkozy to resign, after he called the rioters "scum" earlier in the week -- language that served only to inflame the vandalism.

A second nursery has been set ablaze!

Despite Sarkozy's frustrated use of the French equivalent of "scum" and "rabble," he is the leader on whom the major responsiblity descends and in regard to whom most citizens hope for effective leadership to end the insurrection. "We will be firm," Sarkozy said today. He had been a leading candidate for President in the next round of French elections. He believes in freedeom of religion, and has critiqued France's government-cult of secularism. He is not an enemy of Islam, Judaism, or Christianity - tho he himself is "nonconfessional." - Politicarp

Toronto: Surviving in the city: Guns, gangs, shootings, deaths, Mayor, Prov #1, Police Chief TO, Prov Consvt #1 > spinich

Toronto Guns'N'Shootin's Watch

Criminals with 50% American guns aren't winning, Editorial, Toronto Star, August 6, 2005. For the entire editorial, click the blog-entry large-typeface headline at top. The secondary headline for the more immediate link is my version of what the editorial's means in the context of the official lines put out in the city in the last two weeks, in lite of the info which follows in the various other links of the blog entry below.

Our Toronto Mayor, David Miller, and our Provinicial Premier, Dalton McGuinty, both want to blame our predicament on the Americans - not the smugglers, who bring half our illegal weapons into the province and city, but more largely "the Americans" (see the last link on the different histories of the two countries on Gun Control). The Toronto Police Chief agrees with the datum in a hat tip to the Mayor and the Premier, but focuses on winning their and our support for a plan of police strategists to target the zones (not mere "neighbourhoods," mind you) where two top gangs of considerable size and reach are conducting a turf war. This has less public support than you may wish - for instance, among white liberals who are already primed for the division that will emerge in the Black communities whether to support the police or to decry them as being the worst of two evils. This predicatble pattern is one reason why the pusillanimous Mayor and Premier float their "blame the Americans" flusterbluster. Don't be smogged by this ploy (which Dalton has already used on the pollution of Toronto's air by the cars Torontonians drive, not caused in the main instance by the Americans as he would have it). - Politicarp

Residents of Toronto, and beyond, have been rightly shocked in recent weeks by a spate of shootings that have claimed at least six lives and wounded several innocent bystanders. Most appalling is the harm done to Shaquan Cadougan, a 4-year-old boy struck by a series of bullets to the legs in a drive-by shooting.

This violence is inexcusable. Those responsible deserve the harshest punishment possible under our legal system. And the public is justifiably expressing outrage over gangs, guns and some criminals' devil-may-care attitude toward taking human life.

But, despite what some critics would have us believe, Toronto the Good has not turned into Toronto the Bloody. This city's streets have not become out-of-control shooting galleries, filled with gun-toting thugs. And references to "Dodge City" are simply out of place.
Perspective is important. Violence does pose a serious challenge, but it weighs heavier on selected parts of the city, and selected communities, rather than Toronto as a whole. For residents of those unfortunate zones, life is punctuated by gnawing fear and — all too often — the popping sound of criminal gunshots. That's a tragedy. Every effort must be made to bring relief to these troubled areas of the city.

Canada Free Press' Weintreb fixes on McGuinty belated gun solution for Toronto, by Arthur Weinreb, Canada Free Press, August 5, 2005.

After the latest evening of multiple shootings in Toronto and the GTA (at least the latest at the time of this writing), the spate of violent gun crime finally got the attention of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. A group of people were sitting outside their homes on a hot summer night when they became the victims of a drive-by shooting. Included amongst the casualties was a 4-year-old boy who was shot in the leg and hip.

McGuinty seemed to have been rattled by the shooting of the 4-year-old. Well, at least this is some progress for our illustrious premier – the child wasn't even his kid. The last time McGuinty got excited about a young person being the victim of a violent crime it was when one of his sons became the victim of an Ottawa mugging.

After expressing his sympathies to the victims of the escalating gun violence, the premier, stuttering and stammering, said that it's time for a "rethink" about the laws. A rethink?

While Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair set up a task force to redeploy officers to areas of the city where most of the gang related shootings are taking place, Dalton has decided to think. Perhaps after all this thinking is done, some action might be taken to combat the nights of multiple shootings in Toronto that have recently become all too common.

About the only specific thing that McGuinty said was that he intends to take up the matter of illegal guns with the American Ambassador. He seems to be taking a page from Toronto mayor David Miller who blames the United States for shootings and murders committed in Canada by home grown Canadian criminals. Since becoming mayor, David Miller has refused to take any responsibility for any problems that occur in his city, preferring to blame the federal government, the provincial government and now the United States. But we expect more from the premier who is sinking quickly to the level of the Toronto mayor.

The notion that talking to the Americans is somehow going to get them to change their entire gun culture is totally absurd. And if McGuinty truly wanted to do something to stop American guns from being brought across the border, the premier would be talking to the federal government that is responsible for the border, not the American Ambassador.

Dalton McGuinty had promised to fund an additional 1,000 police officers for the province but that promise seems to be just lying around until it can officially declared "broken" as most of his other major promises have been.

McGuinty's undertaking a "rethink" and wanting to talk to the U.S. Ambassador while the streets of Toronto are being shot up on what seems to be a nightly basis proves that he is totally incapable of dealing with problems that don't fit into his special pet interests.

Apologies to Arthur for this lengthy quote, but the matter is so urgent, and his remarks are so cogent and backed up by longterm McGuinty-watching on numerous issues, that I'm doing my best to make sure all refWrite readers
get a chance to go thru Arthur's entire argument on the matter. - Owlb

Who's responsible for gun violence?, Letter to National Post, August 5, 2005. Click-up this pithy letter and read it, please. - Politicarp

Mother of shot boy: 'You have to thank God he's alive', by Christie Blatchford, Toronto's greatest crime and crime-trial reporter, making gruesome stuff a good read, now at Globe&Mail, August 4, 2005.

An apparent gang-shooting that begs for the determination of a motive. Miss Blatchfrod writes about the 4-year-old Shaquan Cadougan who was struck an incredible 4 times by the bullets that went into his lower body parts and legs. And he's still alive! Click up here story and read for your self, as Ms Blatchford's account is too close an investigation to be recapped here. - Owlb

Top cop takes aim at smuggled guns, but deftly spins the Miller-McGuinty line to advance police's definite plan for crime-hi TO rival gang regions, by Canadian Press, carried also in The London [ON] Free Press, attributed to Paul Choi, August 5, 2005.

TORONTO -- Smuggled handguns and gang warfare are fanning the flames of violence and endangering the lives of innocent people, police Chief Bill Blair said yesterday in the wake of a rash of gunplay that left a four-year-old boy among the injured. ... Blair acknowledged that one of the problems still at the root of gang warfare is the proliferation of firearms, mainly handguns, that are being illegally smuggled in large numbers across the Canada-U.S. border.

"Our investigations have revealed at least half of all the firearms in the city of Toronto are being illegally smuggled across our border from the United States."

The "extremely alarming" shootings Wednesday night, which left one man dead and four other people injured, were the result of two gangs involved in a fierce turf war, Blair said as he announced plans for a special task force to tackle the problem of gang violence in the neighbourhood where the shootings occurred.

Residents tired of dodging bullets 'If police were harder, there wouldn't be this problem', by Armando D'Andrea and Nicholas Kohler, National Post, August 5, 2005.

Rash of shootings spawns new police unit Chief to deploy 'several dozen' officers to deal with troubled neighbourhood, by Robb Shaw, Globe&MailAugust 5, 2005.

MacLean's, Paul Choi (here's another fine reporter to watch for news stories that are Toronto and crime-related, has here a longer more-detailed version of what appeared later in other sources cited above. MacLean's, August 4, 2005.

McGuinty blames guns from U.S., Broadcast News via National Post, August 04, 2005.

The premier says there's no doubt the guns are coming into Canada from south of the border because it's very hard to buy a handgun in this country.

McGuinty he says police and all levels of government should look at gun laws in an effort to stem the problem before it gets worse.

Police chief pledges to battle crime in northwest Toronto
, CBC.ca / CBC News, last updated August 5 2005.

Weekend marked by shootings in Toronto, CBC.ca / CBC News, last updated August 1, 2005

Governmemt: Top Prez Aide - Karl Rove: The politics of holding off the Plame-Wilson cell to discredit the Prez's War policy

As the story of President Bush's top aid, Karl Rove, starts to Rove in so many directions that it becomes difficult to decide where and how to focus in order to many sense of it all. Eric Black's article, Many ways to parse Rove story, in The Minneapolis-St Paul StarTribune,July 31, 2005, attempts to do just that for us. To parse the story, Black comes up with five headings to tell us what the story is about:

1.) It's about the war.
2.) It's about the law.
3.) It's about credibility.
4.) It's about journalism.
5.) It's about politics ...

"Well, sure."

This is a good read; just click the headline above and wade in. Meantime or thereafter, check out these two additional items from the Star Tribune's coverage of the roving story of Rove.

Rove broke no law.
Plame would very probably lose a civil suit against him in court, were she to try that avenue of revenge for her overt/covert misdeeds. She got outted, one way or another. You now, exposed along with her hubby, as a pair of disloyalists.

Juridics: SC - John Roberts: Senate opinion on Sunday TV newstalk shows - Feinstein, Dodd, McConnell - and other voices & views

Sen. Dianne Feinstein on John Roberts journey to his seat on the Supreme Court, Sacramento Bee, July 31, 2005. The California Senator writes a very thawtful piece on what she'll be looking for in the candidacy of John Roberts to take his seat on the Supreme Court. - Politicarp

With the stroke of a pen, a [US Supreme Court] justice may affect millions of lives.

Given this profound impact, I will be looking to ascertain Roberts' judicial philosophy on when precedent can and should be overturned, what is the proper balance of power between the three branches of government and what are his views on individual rights both enumerated and implied in our constitution.

Fundamental questions of law will be affected by his responses to these inquiries, including:

* Whether the court will continue to respect a woman's right to make reproductive choices

* What is covered under the sphere of privacy

* Whether the federal government may intrude on fundamentally personal decisions regarding the end of life

* Whether diversity in our schools continues to be recognized as a compelling state interest

* What is the proper equilibrium between religious beliefs and our public institutions

His judicial philosophy will have broad implications for our national economy, the ability of states and localities to seize private property or infringe upon its uses, the president's authority to conduct the war on terror and the due process rights of enemy combatants and detainees.

NBC News' Meet the Press transcript, July 31, 2005 Hi-lites & snippets:

MR. HARWOOD: ... Judge Roberts is not going to say that he would overturn Roe vs. Wade.

MR. BRODER: You know, Tim, this man is going on to the Supreme Court. And what the Democrats could usefully do, from the country's point of view, is illuminate him not subject him to some sort of cross-examination about specific issues where he will not respond. But he's led a pretty sheltered life in the law. We don't know much about what his view is of American life and society. If we could find that out, it could probably be useful information for the public to have.

MR. RUSSERT: What kind of questions would you ask him?

MR. BRODER: I'd ask him, for example, what does he think about what's happening now in some of the states in this country? What does he think is happening in the relationship between the states and the federal government? What does he think about what is happening between the employers and employees of this country? Get some sense about where his sense of social justice may be, what his sense of obligation to the society, and particularly ask him, what does he think the law means to average citizens? What can they expect from the courts? If he wants to talk about predictability, that would be important to know. If he thinks that there are some specific issues where people have a stake in what the courts decide, we'd like to know that about him.

MS. O'BEIRNE: Interesting, interesting questions. But they're not the kind of thing Democratic senators appear to be interested in.

Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace interviews Sen. Christopher Doddd [D, Connecticut] and Sen. Mitch McConnell [R, Kentucky], July 31, 2005, segment on topic of John Roberts. Snippets:

MCCONNELL: Well, the Democrats think almost everybody's outside the mainstream. Their definition of "mainstream" is a little bit different from mine. My mainstream definition is what would be good in Louisville, Kentucky; theirs, I guess, on the east side of Manhattan.

(LAUGHTER)

Look, in terms of the documents, the administration, as you indicated, has turned over 70,000 pages. There are going to be additional requests for solicitors' papers.

But this administration views the letter signed in 2002 by six living former solicitors, a majority of whom were Democrats, that [turning over more solicitors' papers] would have a chilling effect on the young people who work there in the solicitor's office and make it less likely that they would express themselves openly, is the position the [the Administration is] going to take.

So I think the Senate clearly has enough information to make a decision on Judge Roberts, and I think they're going to confirm him.

DODD: ... I think he's probably a pretty good choice. I've been reading the newspaper articles about him. He's a conservative choice but one that has a distinguished legal record, an academic record, certainly qualified on all of those grounds to be on the Supreme Court.

The open-ended question for us clearly is what are his views about some of the basic values, the equal protection clause, the privacy clause of the Constitution. These are things that members of the Congress through their -- and their representatives want to know about during the confirmation process.

This is a nomination, not a coronation. That's why we have a nomination process. I look forward to that process, and if he comes through it and answers those questions well, he'll have my vote.

Dodd is a bit dodgey, but he leaves the door open a crack, while McConnell is rather gung-ho, eh? - Owlb

Rule for Roberts - Separate Church from State, by Marie Szaniszlo, Boston Herald, July 31, 2005.

``Any opposition to Roberts, particularly because of his anti-abortion record, will likely be countered with accusations of anti-Catholicism,'' Adele Stan wrote in the online edition of the liberal magazine The American Prospect.
Even Boston attorney and longtime women's advocate Ellen Zucker said Roberts' religion should be irrelevant, noting that for more than a century, Jews were effectively barred from the bench.
Nor is a person's faith an accurate predictor of how a person will vote. Two of the Catholics on the current court - Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - are abortion foes. But the third, Anthony Kennedy, voted with the majority in 1992 in a 5-4 ruling reaffirming the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. William Brennan, the lone Catholic on the high court when it decided Roe in 1973, supported liberal access to abortion.
"The question is whether (Roberts) distinguishes between private beliefs and public rights,'' Zucker said.

But is that really the question? It seems to be a false question to me. Beliefs can be kept private at a person's discretion or indolence. Or cunning. But it is not in the nature of beliefs to remain private, beliefs are as public as they are private, and there is no valid reason for excluding them from the public square. - Anaximaximum

A pot pourri of further voices & views that descends to the sheer propaganda of ...<

Democrats Pinpoint the Files They Want, They call their request for Roberts' documents 'limited'; Republicans say it's a delay tactic,
by Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2005

Dissident Voice on Roberts Nomination, by Paul Rogat Loeb, Dissident Voice, July 28, 2005.

Why Can't John Roberts Remember ...?
Stop Thief!, by Tom Englehardt, Mother Jones, July 28, 2005

John Roberts Nomination: Senatorial Advice and Consent, by Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq., National Ledger, Jul 28, 2005.

Bush Stonewalls, Demands Rubber Stamp on Roberts Nomination, by Leo Walsh, PoliticalAffairs, Marxist Thawt online, July 29, 2005.

- Collected by Owlie Scowlie

Toronto: City Life: Miller stirs up flak on US source of TO's trouble with guns, Miss Uni gets more notice

Toronto GunsN'Shootin's Watch

Seems that Hizzworship has stirred up a flying furious flurry of flak with his attempt to make the USA the sole problem in regard to Toronto's problem with guns being shot off all over the place these days, by the usual crims. Don't miss Gary Reid's whack at the Mayor in Gary's article today on David Miller, "What a Maroon!," Canadian Free Press, July 29, 2005. (I doubt Gary is aware that "Maroon" is a very specific name for a community of Blacks who were removed from the Carribean and brawt to Halifax under duress.) Theme of the article: David Miller on guns and shootings in Toronto, how its all America's fawlt. Oh yeah, and them Maroons. Click the blog entry title above. But, ironic humour aside, there does seem to be a pattern here, eh? Miller blames guns shot off in Toronto on the USA, and McGuinty blames Toronto's smog on the USA's Federal government, as tho all those automobiles streaming down the Don Valley Parkway every morning aren't commuters coming to town to work, and then going home in the evening, and then the cottagers streaming out on the weekends, and returning again home for work during the week. 70% of Toronto's smog and unbreathable air is the product of our own automobiles, trucks, and planes. But the name of the game is blame USA, and duck the problem at hand. - Politicarp

Miss Universe Watch

"A champion of her silly activity," by Raywat Deonandan, Toronto Star, July 29, 2005. The writer with right good humour makes some telling comparisons.
Miss Uni events should be respected like like baseball and synchronized swimming (thos there's not much of that at Nathan Phillips Square in front of City Hall A hoot! - Owlie Scowlie

That bit about comparing Miss Universe and the Barenakedies of Gay Pride Day Toronto. Read letter-writer Henrietta Wasik in a droll epistle to Ancaster News, July 29, 2005. Whatever your orientation. same rules must apply - Owlb

Africa : Niger : Heading off mass starvation in Niger, aid agencies rolling, UN dickering & ducking; but Bush broadly backs UN

The situation in Niger has been politicized; we expect this phenomenon these days. Word comes anyway that aid agencies are up and running to save an estimated 800,000 children under 5 years of age, who are especially vulnerable in the wake of the destruction of the harvest this year by locausts and drought. There is fear as well that the conditions will spread to neighbouring countries of Black Africa.



Regions of Black Africa

Meera Selva and Anne Penketh reported today in The Independent, London, UK, "Aid agencies race to feed Niger's starving children," July 27, 2005 (click the headline above to view the entirety of this important article).

Toby Porter, the director of emergencies for Save The Children, said: "It's not a famine. These kids are starving to death because they are poor." He said the "hidden emergency" had been caused by the chain of events occurring in one of the world's most impoverished countries. The lack of rain, followed by poor harvest and a steep rise in the price of millet had pushed more than one third of the population over the edge. ¶ Mr Porter said: "The Make Poverty History campaign said a child in Africa dies every three seconds. This is what it looks like." ¶ The UN put out urgent appeals to raise funds for 2.5 million people in Niger 10 months ago but received no money until children began starving to death. ¶ But while aid agencies and governments have rushed food to Niger, its neighbouring countries are still in need of help. The UN is warning that the food shortages will spread to other countries in the Sahel desert, such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

What the UN is at last acknowledging is that it has never bothered to establish a Reserve Fund to fill the time-gap between the emergence of a starvation-potential crisis which its experts can detect earlier than the media and the public can absorbe the idea, and the mobilization of the latter into the gift-giving and allocation mode. according to a July 20 press statement from the WorldBank Media Centre.

Niger's severe food crisis could have been prevented if the United Nations had a reserve fund to jump-start humanitarian aid while appeals for money were considered, Reuters reports a senior UN official said on Tuesday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, has $50,000 to quickly respond to emergencies, but only for loans, which must be repaid. Instead, it wants $500,000 for grants to rapidly launch emergency relief campaigns as soon as warning signs emerge, Jan Egeland, the head of OCHA, told a group of reporters. "We need a central emergency fund so that we can have some predictability," Egeland said. "As of now we have none."

An appeal by the Food and Agricultural Organization for $4 million brought in $650,000, all of it from Sweden. UN agencies have appealed for $30 million in humanitarian aid, and about $10 million of that has come in so far. Had the world responded immediately, it would have cost $1 a day to prevent malnutrition among children. Now it costs some $80 to save a malnourished child's life, Egeland said. The combined annual UN appeal for humanitarian aid, typically about $3.5 billion a year, "is one-third of what Europeans eat in ice cream a year, and it is one-tenth of what Americans spend on their pets a year," he said. Xinhua and Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) further reports the Norwegian government has granted an extra 15 million Norwegian Kroners ($2.25 million) in emergency aid to victims of the famine in Niger.

Bush broadly backs UN against Congress' naysayers; says UN reforms are coming

Barry Schweid of the Associated Press via Yahoo!News, reported already on July 21, 2005 that the White House Opposes Bill to Cut UN Funds. The President believes support for the UN is the path to its reform. I propose that the need for a UN Humanitarian Crisis Reserve Fund should constitute one of the absolutely necessary UN reforms, but that its usage be strictly llimited by explicit criteria well established in advance. Further, the administration and outlay of the funds of a UNHC Reserve Fund should be carefully monitored so as not to repeat the kind of fiasco that occured with the Oil-for-Food program that facilitated greedy UN personnel and contractors creaming off the top, in cahoots with Saddam Hussein. - Politicarp

Toronto: City life & stories : New: What's happening to "eh"? Updates: Miss Uni, Subway terror - Is The Star shifting?

Miss Universe Fiasco

The heat has simmered down after having boiled down the Mayor, the Law against Beauty-Contest Winners, and the Bureaucratic Wahhabist Strict Enforcers (BWSE) thereof. But I couldn't resist this item simply because of its headline, otherwise rather repetitious. Whereas the headlne is delicious. Bring your tiara and sash, Toront says, welcoming Miss Universe. Actually the title wasn't quite that good: "Bring your tiara and sash ...," so far so good, but then reality sets in, "apologetic Toronto tells Miss Universe." If only the words "Welcome to Toronto City Hall!" could have followed "Bring your tiara and sash" into one of those headlines at some point, but of course an apology was very much in order and now apparently has been fully made, according to the report of David Usborne in London UK's The Independent. Unfortunately, the article as a whole has disappeared into the Ind's pay-for archives. But a snippet survives for your delectation:

An embarrassed Toronto has formally apologised to the reigning Miss Universe after some of its more politically correct bureaucrats prevented her from attending a recent Thai food festival in the city's main square, citing a by-law that bars sexual degradation or stereotyping.

Natalie Glebova, 23, a citizen of Toronto who won the Miss Universe contest in Thailand in May, was to open the festival in Nathan Phillips Square, in front of City Hall, last Saturday. But officials said she would be allowed to participate only if she ditched her tiara and sash and other beauty queen regalia. An almighty row predictably followed.

About the almighty row. And I'm still backtracking a bit to recover some items I earlier missed, this time from Norman Spector's Daily Press Review, with a flourish of a Hat Tip to that gent and reporter par excellence, tho mired in a rather leftist orientation in my opinion.

Norman continues: The Gazette [of Montreal] gooses Toronto:

Even by Toronto standards, this week's ban on Miss Universe was ludicrous. And Mayor David Miller knows it. Hizzoner apologized to Natalie Glebova - who has lived in the Toronto area since early childhood - after some zealous crank at city hall barred her from taking part in a "Taste of Thailand" street fair in front of city hall last weekend. (Glebova won her title at a pageant in Bangkok in May.)

Toronto, predictably, has a policy banning anything that could "exploit the bodies of men, women, boys or girls," and flatly bans beauty contests. So she could have attended as an individual, but not as Miss Universe. She chose not to attend at all.

Well, what else can you expect from a city that vetoed a 1992 concert by the rock band Barenaked Ladies, because some city hall busybody deemed the name offensive?

But now Toronto's stupidity can be Montreal's gain. Memo to Mayor Gerald Tremblay: There's still time to invite Glebova to come and take part in the closing ceremonies for the World Aquatics Championships. Montrealers don't object to physical beauty, and don't have a dress code. And at an event taking place at poolside, Glebova could even get away with wearing a bathing suit.

"The National Post’s David Asper dumps on TO" [even more acerbically, to continue with Norman's posts of record]:

Not that we need any more examples of how stupid the doctrine of political correctness (polcorism) has become, but once in a while its purveyors (polcorites) achieve new lows worth noting. Such is the case of the as-yet-unidentified Toronto bureaucrat who barred Miss Universe, Canada's own Natalie Glebova, from opening a festival scheduled to occur on city property. This polcorite -- who purported to be acting on the authority of a bylaw prohibiting all things degrading to women -- should be named and forced to explain him or herself.

According to her bio, Ms. Glebova is a Russian immigrant to Canada. Overcoming language and cultural barriers in her new land, she received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ryerson University and has worked as a motivational speaker for students in the Toronto area. She is also a model, as well as a trained classical pianist and athlete who has won a number of regional gymnastic competitions. Her accomplishments in life, including winning the Miss Universe Pageant, probably far exceed those of the pointy-headed polcorite who tried to shoot her down. Which of the two, one might ask, is the better role model? Which is giving more to society?

Thankfully, Toronto Mayor David Miller stepped in and did the proper thing by apologizing for the cock-up. But one has to wonder: In a city that annually opens its streets (municipal property, of course) to celebrate a parade of gay, transsexual and transgendered people, how is it that Miss Universe, an accomplished, successful woman, becomes verboten?

Would this happen in any other Canadian city? Not a chance.

As enlightened as are most Torontonians, the fact is that the city will always be held back from greatness by its polcorites. They are a sour, energy-sucking plague upon the metropolis. Only someone with a warped mindset could see in Natalie Glebova, decked out in her Miss Universe regalia, a sinister plot to promote sexist stereotypes. How else can one explain the decision to bar a glamorous and accomplished woman from a festival's opening ceremonies?

I find the comparison with the decorum of attire at the Gay Pride Parade and events is being contrasted in many reports and opinion pieces regarding the treatment of Miss Universe. - Owlb

Toronto losing its "eh," eh?

Here's another item that has largely disappeared into the paid-for archives, this time those of the National Post again, where originally it appeared under the byline of Siri Agrell.

A new study chronicling the patterns of "Toronto English" has found the language of Canada's most populous city is changing rapidly and the archetype of cliched Canadian parlance -- eh? -- is dying.

The term "eh" is losing favour in the Ontario capital, according to the Toronto English Project, a study led by a University of Toronto linguistics professor. …

She found that the way Torontonians talk is evolving at a rate outpacing that of Americans and Britons, and that the word "eh" -- as in "Sure is humid, eh?" is being replaced by words such as "so," "whatever," "right" and "and stuff" -- as in "You sure are sweating and stuff."

Now, that last one doesn't sound plausible, eh? Thanks to Norman Spector again for carrying this snippet too! And damn the archives, full speed ahead! - Owlb

Subway terrorism

Background blog entries previously in refWrite:
•July 24 - Harper wants tuffened national security, TTC's Moscoe defeatist on subway security
•July 22 - In Toronto, Canadian Muslim leaders unite against terrorism
•July 21 -GTA terrorist watch focuses on subway system

It seems reality is catching up with the Toronto Star; it is shifting to rightward, and joining a newly-centre on the issue of opposing terrorism. It has taken The Star decades to do so, but for the reasons outlined in its editorial yesterday, Struggling to cope with a new reality, July 26, 2005.

All of a sudden, the Toronto newsdaily is embracing in one concept New York. Baghdad, Madrid, Bali, London. refWrite had already done so earlier - except we didn't have the guts to include Baghdad. However, The Star suddenly legitmates the inclusion - yet holding back on the full weight of the logic necessary to the world-pattern, as also we did. Sharm el Sheikh belongs on the list, and refWrite got that right earlier. Yes, New York, Baghdad, Madrid, Bali, London also belong on the list. Good for you, Toronto Star. But so does Jerusalem belong, Tel Aviv, and numerous other cities and towns of Israel, all Isreal belongs on the list. That's where the logic of seeing the pattern takes us. When The Star says "Now, more than ever, civilians — regardless of race, religion or ethnic background — are under attack, primarily from suicide bombers, a phenomenon almost unheard of a few years ago." Really, it was heard of an awful lot regarding Jerusalem and other locales in Israel. But The Star has claudicated along, with that blind spot large in its field of vision, never holding Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations, just as now we are asked by the new government in Lebanon not to hold Hizbollah there, accountable in the same way for the terrorist deeds perpetrated according to the pattern that the editorial now sees as worldwide. Let's not make convenient exceptions.

But The Star editorial rings with a clarity that many of us have not yet been able to achieve. Recounting the attacks of the last week, the editorial says pointedly:

Each of these events was a graphic demonstration of how extremists' tactics are changing. Their aim is to disrupt society and breed suspicion and fear. Their tactics have been particularly alarming in Western Europe and North America, where citizens have been largely insulated from the violent tactics that have long been a fact of life in many parts of the world. ¶ More suicide terrorist attacks are inevitable. Within security forces, there's a growing belief that they are impossible to prevent. ¶ Faced with this new reality, governments around the world, including in Canada, must decide how best to cope with extremist ideologies and strategies that know no boundaries, humanity or reason.

Now, a new problem is upon us. The editorial does not shy away from this. It notes that the death of an innocent occured in London while the police there were in hot pursuit of a suspected terrorist. The editorial notes that the police chief remarked forthrightly that more innocents will die, it goes with territory. The editorial doesn not shy away from that awful fact either:

As frightening as this new reality may be, particularly to minorities who feel they will be unjustly targeted, it is not unreasonable that police should adopt such a policy. After all, London's transit system was attacked twice in two weeks. Dozens of people died and 700 were injured. And when police suspect a suicide bombing is about to take place, every second counts. Regrettably, tragic mistakes sometimes will happen.

May God have mercy on us all. Which all brings us down to the question of how we defend the TTC and Toronto's subway system? - Owlb for us all, Anaximaximum, Politicarp, and Owlie Scowlie.

Canada: National Security: Opposition leader Harper wants tuffened national security, TO's Moscoe defeatist on subway security

Stephen Harper, the peripatetic opposition leader for the Tories in the House of Commons, complete his 10-day campaign tour of Onatrio by a low-key visit to Toronto's Lake Ontario area, but had a strong message. He isn't happy with the state of the country's national security situation,


National Security

Toronto Subway Security

he thinks the Liberals are lacklustre in taking command of supplying identifiable needs, and he is calling for a major overhaul of the various Federal agencies overlooking security concerns and their relations with counterpart bureaucracies on the provincial and local levels.

"Any country that opposes the views of some of these organizations is going to be named by them," he said while touring the city's lakefront. "Our country has been named by them as a potential target and we have to take that seriously."

Harper reiterated his call for the creation of an new authority of a commissioner of national security to co-ordinate all security and defence services.

"We should never deceive ourselves into thinking that we're somehow beyond any of this activity," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, Howard Moscoe, continued to put his defeatist foot in his repeatist mouth, for which he was called a "buffoon" by Canada Free Press' Associate Editor Arthur Weinreb. I scored that Weinreb's remark at the time, but now I'm thinking perhaps Moscoe deserved what he got and perhaps needs more of the same. Defeatism is not the way to go, not the talk, not the way to joke. It is the way to die, should terrorists ever come the way of our subterranean transport lines. And they choose the time and place. Yes, the task is immense. But Moscoe can no longer hide out in the problems of the past, no matter how difficult their resolution had been and no matter what good work he had done in that previous phase of our life together in this great city. We stand to get it in the neck, in the Tube (to borrow London's term,; so does Montreal's Metro, as its called).

Howard, you can put cameras in buses and subwaycars.

Howard, you can think-thru the Toronto of the Future in its present condition of being vulnerable to mass transit terorism.

Terrorism clearly poses a greater threat to some cities than to others. The symbolic global importance and high population density of London and New York made them inviting targets to terrorists. Moreover, unlike smaller cities and suburbs and more modern, sprawling places such as Phoenix, Houston or Los Angeles, which depend on multiple job centers and private cars, centralized London and New York rely on the very transit modes -- subways, trains and buses -- that terrorist operators clearly target. Over the past three decades, in fact, terrorists have attacked such transportation systems to kill more than 11,000 people in cities from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Baghdad to Madrid and London.

As Toronto's Sun has suggested there are some technological things that can be done, well before they're overdone. Look further in the article just quoted from The Washington Post, by Joel Kotkin, July 24, 2005

Technological measures -- from cameras in subway tunnels to radiation-scanning devices at highway approaches to major cities -- can also help improve security, as can steps like putting more police and bomb-sniffing dogs on trains, buses and subways, as New York recently decided to do. But the notion of imposing the kinds of controls we now see at airports -- magnetometers and scanners and body searches at the entrance to every public place -- would make life in cities far less enjoyable, and anonymous, than it is today, and is to be viewed strictly as a last resort.

Howard, don't skip litely to visions proferred by capitlist architectural and condominium developers and real-estate operators. Think about how to get real for the real people who use the actual subway over which you preside. If you've already reached your highest level of competence and now can only serve us up with defeatism based on nostalgia for a bygone day, then please, we thank you for all you've done, but resign pronto! We need someone else if you've met your Peter Principle. Perhaps you could take a year off from politics and study the urban security of Toronto against terrorism. You were a great civil servant (as will as city councillor), and you could be yet again. But not running for the New Defeatist Party, and not by sitting on or chairing the Toronto Transit Commision.

Last but not least, on a hi-er philosophical level, we all need to re-evalute certain orientations toward national policy that makes Toronto especially vulnerable these days.

Consider London's multiculturalist Mayor Ken Livingstone, who last year actually welcomed a radical jihadist, Egyptian cleric Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, to his city. ¶ Multiculturalism and overly permissive immigration policies have also played a role here in North America. Unfettered in their own enclave, Muslim extremists in Brooklyn helped organize the first attack on the World Trade Center in the early 1990s. Lax Canadian refugee policies have allowed radical Islamists to find homes in places like Montreal and Toronto, where some might have planned attacks on this country, like the alleged 2000 plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport.

We need to keep up an active open stance of welcome to our Muslim community, but we do not need to continue in the lax manner of "Lax Canadian refugee policies [that] have allowed radical Islamists to find homes in places like Montreal and Toronto where some" are probably planning their day of glory right now - in the subway system over which you preside, in all your own glorious defeatism, Mr. Commissioner!

Hopefully, if Stephen Harper's proposed Security Czar is created and assigned powers, staff, and enforceable coordination, laggards like Moscoe will have to widern the horizon and level of effective provision and action - and get the support needed to do so. Toronto's subway system is a national asset, tho the Liberals have long thawt of it as merely internal civic concern. With Harper's Security Czar in place, we should have the wherewithal to do what must be done.

- Politicarp

Thursday updates, new blog entries, hot newslinks - Canadian drug tunnel closed by US

•New today: Human Diversity: Physiogamy & Development: Hermaphroditism - no miracle, just creation doing what God intended, I'd say
•New today : Canada: Senate: Upper Chamber makes it official: Generic "marriage" is in, trad mrrge out - Steele effect in full force?
•New today : Terrorism: UK London counts 1 injured, otherwise survives new bomb attempts
•New today: Economics: USA Employment down, manufacturing up - thumbnail background & forecast
.
•New yesterday Toronto Special: Quirks of City Life : Toronto whacks Miss Universe
•New yesterday Philosophy: Science & Story: The importance of narrative in science, not only compatible, but inseparable
•New yesterday Juridics: Children's Rights: Martin Guggenheim asks, What's wrong with 'children's rights'? UPDATED WITH MAJOR COMMENTARY!
•New yesterday Sports: Baseball: Phillies hold their own, Nats surprise of the season; Jays seek breakthru past triumvirate
.
New today - unblogged newslinks: none yet!
.
New yesterday - unblogged newslinks:
• UN Reserve Fund could have prevented disaster in Niger's famine
• Hizbollah terrorist org's parliament members get ministerial post in Lebanon's govt
• Turk Foreign Minister condemns US Sen Trancredo's bomb-Mecca call if US hit by Islamic terrorists again
• Bush nominates Fed Appeals Court Judge, John Roberts, to become Supreme Court Justice
• South Africa's Mbeki pressured by oppositon Movement for Democratic Change: trade loans for Zimbabwe reforms
• Peruvians march to protest major govt corruption

• New two days back Canada: Politics: 66% of Tories want to keep Harper as leader; 41% of all Canadians (voters?)
• New two days back Latin America: Guatemala: New info surfaces on rightwing death squads in Guatemala's recent past, some Pentecostal Christians implicated
• New two days back War: Terrorism Dead chldren killing Al-Quaeda. Plus: Al-Jazeera lashes back in its own propaganda war.
• New two days back Politics: Quebec: LeDevoir's Jean-Louis Bourque says only return of Bernard Landry will stave off PQ's disaster

• New three days backEconomics: Social Audit of firms: Ethical investing faces self-serving business annual reports that hide anti-social practices
• New three days back: Science: Behaviourism: Behaviour causes attitudes, says blog Canadian Steele, so you'll get over State-imposed gmarriage
• New three days back: Politics: Asia: Pakistan is no true ally

• UPDATE July 18, "China Wants War," Charles R. Smith, NewsMax.com on the Communist Chinese General's threat to use nukes to take-over Taiwan in the case of a US defense of the island
• UPDATE: July 19, "Mad-cow 'threat': overblown politics," a commentary by Froma Harrop, in The Christian Science Monitor throws further lite on the ongoing developments regarding the sale of Northern beef south of the border. Scroll to July 15 blog entry Commerce: US & Canada: How now beef fans, Mad Cow ban lifted!, wow!
• UPDATES: Karl Rove story(our original blog, July 13).
•• July 18 "Bush loses some luster on crediblity."
•• July 16 "Rove emailed security official about talk," John Solomon,San Fransisco Gate raises question of a "leak" not necessarily meeting legal requirements for penalty. It depends on several factors.
••Don't miss our July 15 update, "Valerie Palme's Soap Opera," to our blog entry for Wed, July 13 - the one about Karl Rove, Whistleblower in The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal.

• Don't miss from the intrepid and always interesting Canadianna's Place on "Same-Sex, the RC Church, the UN, and so on...."

Missiology: MidEast Iraq: Report from Christians on the Frontlines after Foreign Missions Influx then Exflux

An agency that supports indigenous missions in difficult places around the world, and which reports on conditions in many countries where Christian missionary work is seriously blocked or totally surpressed, sends this report in its most recent email newsletter:

A Christian ministry leader of Muslim background who has traveled in Iraq four times in the last year told Christian Aid, "Despite everything, the churches in Iraq are growing." The news comes as a surprise amid reports of a virtual Christian exodus from the country. Muslim extremists have attacked churches and threatened, kidnapped or murdered Christians, driving thousands of Iraqi believers into neighboring countries for safety.

Yet according to this mission leader, whose name is withheld for security reasons, Christians who are staying are seeing their churches grow. He believes the sudden influx and subsequent withdrawal of many foreign missionary agencies following the toppling of Saddam Hussein contributed to this growth. "I have never seen so many foreign groups coming into one place [after Saddam Hussein's government was overthrown]," he says. "But, as soon as things started to get difficult, many of them pulled out, leaving only the Iraqi Christians to do the work."

Iraqi believers have stepped up efforts to spread the gospel to their countrymen even though some of them are in grave danger from insurgents fighting in the name of Islam. Through his visits with families in Iraq, the native mission leader learned of a disturbing tactic being used by insurgents to maintain their ranks: fighters have been going house to house in certain areas, demanding a child from each family. Those who refuse are threatened with death; those who go with the insurgents are "trained" for several months for suicide bombing missions.

"Though many Iraqis were glad to be rid of Saddam and glad for the Americans' help, they live in such fear because of these things," he said.

In this atmosphere, Iraqi believers know that the need for Christ's gospel of peace is stronger than ever, and they are determined to spread it.

This force of native Iraqi missionaries, the mission leader says, points to a change that ought to take place in missions across the board. "Churches in America need to change their ideas about missions," the leader declared. "They need to trust the natives' vision to reach their own people and get behind them with support."

Please lend prayer support to Iraqi Christians courageously spreading the gospel in an extremely volatile situation. For more information, write insider at christianaid dot org and put MI-619 444-WMN on the subject line.

----------------------


If you email or clickup the Christian Aid website, you may want to ask for their Report on the South African Land Crisis, and the difficulties of a just solution (white farmers have been murdered off systematically by certain forces, for instance); Christain Aid has its Report available on PDF.

Cut-&-paste URL for Christain Aid USA website: http://www.christianaid.org/home.asp

The Groen Greens go vertuous

Groen was an advisor to the Dutch monarchy after its restoration in the 1800s. That's Guillaume Groen, or in translation we could say "Billy Green." Now, Billy was given the honorific of "van Prinsterer," or "of the Prince, or "of the Prince's Household." Groen [Green] became Archivist to the Royal House of Orange, the ruling dynasty of the Netherlands. He also started a political movement which became a political party which became the leading party in a number of Dutch coalition governments then and now. The Party was a Christian-democratic party, and it harbors its own class of "greens" in our contemporary sense - that is, pro-environment as in the case of economist Bob Goudzwaard who tawt the Dutch about "unpriced scarcity" like air and water. And along with being pro-environment, these Christain Democrats greenies are pro-health for babies, other humans and animals. Now, Guillaume Groen whose first name translates from the French as William just as vert translates as green, was a truly vertuous man and generated some generations later a bevy scholars and activists who have helped launch the Evangelical vertuosi on their pilgrimage to a greener America today.

Suddenly, American evangelicals, like their Dutch counterparts, have a lively pro-environment bunch of greens (I hate to put a cap on the word, a semiotic move which could co-opt our verticalvinists into mere minions of the "Green Party" or "Greenpeace" or some other entity incompatible with Christian faith and action in a convictionally diverse society.

In any case, I've posted an important article "The Greening of Evangelicals," by Blaine Harden that appeared in The Washington Post to Liberty Post with a comment of my own.

My comment was - may I introduce a new meaning for an old word - "sidereal" to the news value of Harden's report. In trying to post it, I had the sidereal problem of fitting my point in the mere posting of it on Liberty Post, into LP's organizing categories for all posts. That is, by recognizing the articles's importance and wanting the article to be easily available for some time, I had to choose the least worse of the available categories just to keep it available and discussable thru LP's comments feature and to LP's readers, posters, and commenters. In contrast, large dailies often squirrel important articles away into their pay-for online archives. Then these articles are not freely available for free study and free comment. Now, that's exactly the general situation of Groen's American progeny and of American Evangelicals generally, on many topics that should not be sluiced aside into the "Religion" category at the very historical moment when we/they are instituting withn society a convictionally diverse stream on a very society-wide set of issues like the Environment. So, I had to find a category other than Liberty Post's "Religion" in which the posted article would be appropriate. There was no category for "Environment," so I entered Harden's WP report into LP's "Health, Science, Technology," as I recall. But, then, I had an autocategory machine catch up with me, informing me that a keyword analysis of the article suggested that the category in which the article should be classified was "Religion." But, graciously the LP folks had a note at hand that advised me, the decision of category would be left to me, and invited me to say why. So I did as follows:

Subject: The autocategorizer is mistaken


The point of the article in WP, The Greening of Evangelicals, is that environmentalism is finding a new constitutency which won't mix with the older leftwing environmentalism. And the new environmentalism does have an Evangelical vocabulary about the environment and about the illness that pollution brings to children and the unborn. You don't have a classification for the Environment (an eo-con bias?). But this article doesn't belong under Religion, unless Religion includes everything - politics, economics, business, arts, entertainment, and everything else - on your vocabulary. The article is not about churches. You should rethink your autocategorizer's marginalization of communities that don't blend into the convictional landscape in sectors where the press assumes all the "real" players are already present, and Evangelicals or Groenian vertuosi don't belong..

Also, you should have an Environmental category, and not assume that Bush's stance here is really the last or the correct word for a conservative or anybody else.

I'd be happy to exchange with you on theme of category marginalization, and the overall Environment category that your system currently doesn't recognize. I'm not pushing the Global Warming issue, as I don't think business necessarily produces the weather changes we're seeing. There are natural cycles involved. However, pollution is a serious threat; I can't go for walks in the city where I live in the summer, because it leaves me feeling suffocated on the street on bad pollution days. Capitalism is not rising to this crisis, since it's blind to the unpriced scarcity of good water and air: so what's to be done?

Yours, Inhabitant-thereof

And, oh yes, I got this in reply, again from a queu of machines:

This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:

Your message was not delivered because the destination computer was
not reachable within the allowed queue period. The amount of time
a message is queued before it is returned depends on local configura-
tion parameters.

Most likely there is a network problem that prevented delivery, but
it is also possible that the computer is turned off, or does not
have a mail system running right now.

Your message was not delivered within 1 days.
Host libertypost.org is not responding.

All in a day's blog!